Family Friday: Girls Day Out

It's Family Friday time again! Family Friday is hosted by HomemakerBarbi.com, thank you Danielle! Danielle has also launched two new sites in recent weeks you might want to check out:

And Freebies For All (and)

Mommy Blogger

I'm excited about today. I'm actually behind on my day right now but that's how it's been all week it seems! I learned about Crazy 8 children's clothing a few months ago. We are huge Gymboree fans, and this is a "sister store" of Gymboree. I received an email via Gymboree on Wednesday that a Crazy 8 store was opening in the next city, yay!! Not only that but a $10 off of $30 purchase coupon, too! So Hannah and I are headed off in a little while to do some back to school shopping. The kids are going back to their private Christian school this year. They have went there their whole school careers except for this past year when they went to a charter school, and that was not a very good experience for Jackson.

Hannah and I went shopping last weekend since it was tax free weekend, and I was amazed at how much money we saved in school supplies. We literally spend half as much money, or more (versus what we did last year), not counting book bags. It made me wonder- how is it that this small, private school can accomplish so much more with so much less, than the large public charter school? Of course the answer was easy- God is behind the small private school and is an integral part of its daily operation, He isn't in the public school. We're very excited about the upcoming school year that starts on the 20th. I've been helping Jackson's teacher this week get the classroom ready and its been a great blessing.

We've recent had a big family event happen: Braden turned three! Braden is our great nephew, brother to ^Jordan^.

Check out the recent Braden posts from his birthday and videos from the party:

Happy Birthday Braden!

You might be a redneck IF ...

Braden's birthday (Thomas the train is yummy)

Braden and bubbles

We've also reached a milestone with food. Hannah asked me yesterday if I can get her a Sigg bottle to send her water to school for lunch, because she has started to like drinking water. Praise the Lord! Miracles never cease. Read more about the recent food revelations.

Have a great weekend! I look forward to reading your Family Friday posts, be sure to leave your links with your comments!

Tell Me Thursday: Here kitty kitty

Tell Me Thursday is hosted by tellmethursday.com , be sure to hop over and see other participant's posts! Last week I was missing the beach, this week, Im introducing you to some family pets. Yep, you heard right!

Yesterday you saw Sheba and baby. Braden's (2) (paternal) grandparents own them. They have had wildlife in their back yard for ten years or better now. Sheba I believe is about that old. The baby's father is Charlie, who passed away a few months ago. They have a number of acres "out in the country" , very pretty area.

The view from the driveaway / back yard behind the house:

Hannah visiting Charlie last year ('08):

Charlie- there are two rows of fencing that are cemented a few feet into the ground for support:

Charlie- he was such a beautiful animal:

Part of the field and the shed where the deer used to live:

Wordless Wednesday: Here kitty kitty

Find more Wordless Wednesday posts at WordlessWednesday.com, The Not So Blog, and Five Minutes For Mom. Come back tomorrow for Tell Me Thursday: About Wordless Wednesday, and learn the story behind these pics!

Food revelations

Last week I mentioned some of the changes Hannah has come upon in recent weeks. She is doing very well with food these days. She used to be very, very picky with food. Processed and junk foods are of the devil, I'm starting to believe. I've done a lot of reading over time about food, and what's best for the body and I'm starting to really appreciate the wisdom the Lord will give us especially as mothers when we ask for it, concerning how to raise our children, including what goes in their bellys. I'm not an average weight by far, and this has been a personal struggle for me in recent years. I am just not comfortable in my own skin. I have learned that one person in a family cannot combat their battles and trials alone- it takes the whole family to do it. Yes, everyone is responsible for their choices, but when it comes to strife in the home, if one's choices are not respected then not everyone is going to benefit in the situation.

My brother in law has been staying with us in the past few weeks. Monday a week ago, he treated the kids and I to Arby's. Since last Monday, we had not eaten fast food at all until Sunday night. I had cooked everything at home. I also tried some new recipes last week that worked well. One, which was something I come up with on my own- not so good. I got halfway through my Wendy's chicken sandwich when I realized, I truly was not enjoying that sandwich like I used to. Jay had even made sure the fries and sandwich were fresh, but it was different. My taste buds had already started changing. By the time I went to bed, my stomach was bothering me.

Yesterday, (Monday) Hannah and I went out to eat with my parents. I got what I usually order at this particular restaurant, "real" chicken tenders fried greek style, and crispy french fries. Same thing. I did not have the same enjoyment I used to have eating that meal. Furthermore, I felt like a block of lead was sitting in my stomach. Last night at a church dinner I attended- same thing. "Normal"- non whole foods, and by the time I got home last night I was in cramps!

In my head I knew this was a likely occurance for someone who had been eating primarily whole foods (as in, foods closest to their natural state, not "from" Whole Foods.) I realized, last week, no one complained about what I fixed, and everyone ate what was fixed and liked it. Yes, there was one night Jay fixed fried potatoes and onions, but beyond that- chicken from the grill, salads, watermelon for dessert. Great stuff. Beyond Hannah, Jay is the greatest whole food critic in this house. The times he was "exposed" to the foods I fixed (which, actually weren't many), he did not complain. He has no idea how far that has went for me and how encouraged I am right now with this food revelation: It can be done, you do feel better, and you can keep doing it.

Because when you are not the overweight one, the food issues really shouldn't be about you. It should be about who needs the biggest benefit from the food being fixed. Because nothing tastes as good as being healthy / skinny / thin feels.

This post is shared at Heavenly Homemakers for Gratituesday. Now hop on over to Carrie and Amy Lynne's blog and see what they're thankful for this week :)

Braden and bubbles

We got Braden a Winnie The Pooh bubble wand for his birthday. That thing is HUGE. I want one! It is one of those things where you wouldn't pay for your own kids to have one, but because it's a gift, the price is justified. Am I the only one that thinks like that? (I hope not!) He LOVED his bubbles. I knew he would. Because I'm the "cool" aunt and cool aunts get the best stuff for birthdays, right? Ok, that's what I tell myself at least. I mentioned before loving to hear him talk. We don't get to spend much time with him anymore and weren't around really when he started talking in sentences and so forth, so I really enjoyed this. Three year old giggles are so adorable!!

Braden's birthday

More video from Braden's third birthday (our great nephew). What a cutie.

Urban deer part two

More pictures of my surprise visit from our herd of deer on my birthday. View the first batch of pictures.

I love walking by my back door during deer season and seeing this view. I've missed it greatly since the early Spring. In September into October of last year Jackson and I would sit in lawn chairs between the back door and corner of the garage (close to that little hill where the buck pictures are taken) and they will wander by us. "Moe" will watch us closely while the rest graze and enjoy theirselves. One day I counted ten while we were out there, it almost got a little creepy when they started staring at us!

"You get away from us!" :)

Thier colors are so beautiful.

There's our boy. Oh he's so gorgeous, I so hope we will be seeing a lot of him this year.

I'm pretty sure Im going to create a layout of prints to hang in the livingroom of this set, especially of this last picture. It's my absolute favorite.

Which one do you like best between these and the first ones?

Timothy dreaming

We have an over sized chair we got from freecycle. It's so over sized, we've discussed a number of times how out of place it looks in the living room, and it's too big to fit through the kid's bedroom doors, and too big for our bedroom. When we start redecorating ... or decorating, should I say, we'll eventually get rid of it. But it's so comfortable. VERY comfortable. But it's an eyesore now. Why? Cause it's the cats' chair. (Translate: picked to death from claws) Both of them, but mainly Timothy. That's where you'll find him. It's not uncommon to see him on one arm and Titus on another. This chair sits beside Jay's recliner, where I like to do my bible reading in the morning. I caught this video on one of our recently quiet, calm mornings. It was so quiet you can hear the camera zooming!

Not earth shattering or necessarily hilarious, but I thought it was cute. If you liked it, be sure to click so below this post :)

Tell Me Thursday: Missing the beach

Tell Me Thursday is hosted by tellmethursday.com , be sure to hop over and see other participant's posts!

Last week I shared about family fun day. This week, I'm thinking about how much I'd love to go back to the beach! We went to the beach with my BFF and her kids and nieces. It was me, her, and nine kids. It was quite the trip and we had a wonderful time. The weather was so beautiful. We are planning on going for the full week next year. The place where we stayed has three bedroom condos upstairs from the level we were on with the two bedrooms this year. We're planning on getting a two bedroom and they're going to get a three bedroom. If everything goes right Jackson is going to take a friend so he will have someone to play with. I'm excited already :)

Although the beach is wonderful for summer, so is the mountains. We love visiting Banner Elk (North Carolina), too. My parents have a timeshare there. We honeymooned there, and have spent a good number of weekend trips there. It's become tradition for us to go up there in September. Last year it was November and it snowed! I've already made the mental note to take some board games and extra movies if we go in November again.

My birthday party

My birthday was last Thursday. Jay, Hannah and I met some family members for dinner at Applebees. We had a good time visiting together. I had the best birthday in years this year. Here are some of the pictures I caught. Mom has a really good one on her camera I want to snag soon. It's a hoot. All of these pictures were edited in Photoshop CS2 and I used two- three Pioneer Woman Actions, "Boost" from pack one, "warmer" and "seventies" from pack two.

The cheese girl. The girl LOVES cheese. But she's picky. She used to only eat processed American cheese food products. Then I broke the news that it wasn't real cheese. Good thing she's not a die hard Santa player. The cheese thing was hard enough! So she started exploring. We also eat real American cheese now. She likes to be patriotic like that. She loves Monterey Jack cheese in and on everything if she had the choice.

In the last six months, she has grown a love of fried Mozzarella now. Praise God.

You know ... I cannot remember the last time we took a picture this good. Seriously. Not even our wedding pictures were this good. He was smiling, too! Yes, that's a Jay smile for pictures. He usually doesn't smile. That's why you don't see a whole lot of "posed" pictures of us. This was his gift to me.

"Mommy what made you fall in love with daddy?" Hannah has asked. Well here ya go.

This picture also answers the question to how I can have such brown eyes and my children do not. Note: no additional eye filters were done to this picture. Yes, those are real! :)

You can see the rest of the birthday pictures on the Facebook page. Enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday: Missing the Beach

GratiTuesday: August 4th

This is one of the easiest posts of the week. God has blessed me with so many wonderful things in my life, picking something out to talk about is easy. Of course I am grateful for my daughter. She's my daughter! I think she's everything I wasn't when I was a little girl. She's all hearts, flowers, balloons ... princesses ... always thinking of others. Her heart is a mile wide. She is the best friend anyone could ask for. Really, she cares SO MUCH about other people. There's a downside to this- it's easy for her to be hurt, too. At the same time, though, those hurts have been teachable moments to show her more about Christ, and about people's need for Christ in the way some treat others. She accepted Christ as her Savior two months before her 6th birthday, and she led herself to Christ. All we done was witness it. It was a precious, precious night for our family.

This past week has been GREAT. Jackson was with one of his uncle's visiting, so it was just me and Hannah here at the house. It was so peaceful. Usually she pecks me to death wanting this, wanting that, complaining about something or another. Not Wednesday. I realized as I was doing my bible reading in the living room, how peacefully quiet it was, even with her three feet away from me in the dining room. She was playing on Pixie Hollow and was as content as she could be. It wasn't like she'd never played on that site, it was just different. We didn't even turn on the TV that day until 4pm. Thursday was the same, and Friday was very close to it. It occurred to me that this new found peace could possibly be her changing, a result of her growing up.

I told Jay in a conversation not long ago how we were on the brink of a number of accomplishments with the kids. We were close to getting on the "other side" of some issues we were trying to overcome. Little things, such as, her insistence on sugary drinks. While we were at the beach I convinced her to drink a glass of water each day to stay hydrated. She's still doing it. As a result, she's not paying as much attention to food during the day because she's able to more accurately tell when she's truly hungry or not. That's big for us, as she was continually snacking through the day, and I believe it was more from potential boredom than true hunger. She's more willing to try new foods, which has ALWAYS been a struggle. The big thing in recent weeks is her relationship with the Lord. No matter where she sits in a church service, she always makes it down to the alter to pray during invitation. That warms my heart SO much. This past week, she brought a friend with her. A friend who is new to church, no less. What a blessing it was to see her be a positive spiritual influence towards another child!

Last week, she also figured out how to make comments on blogs, so you might be seeing links to her new blog posts in the near future. She was so excited about commenting :)

Check out more Gratituesday posts on Heavenly Homemakers.

Tweet what you're thankful for today using the #gratituesday hastag and I'll ReTweet it!

Urban deer part one

The greatest surprise we found when we moved here was the abnormally large deer population. We live in the city, on a main road. Our house is a good way off the road, though still clearly visible. We have a neighbor that lives a nice little walk behind us, about .3 mile. She has lived here for over 40 years, and has one of the does trained to eat out of her hand. She has a LARGE yard that is very secluded. Jay was at her house a few weeks ago fixing something for her and said as they stood out on the porch talking they were watching some of the does in the lower yard running around like they were playing. Last year we had three fawns by two mothers. Each morning they would come in the back yard to eat and I would watch them play and chase each other having the best time. It is truly amazing to me, God's creation of these beautiful creatures. Yes, we are a hunting family, but that doesn't negate the appreciation of their beauty and grace.

On my birthday the herd showed back up! We've seen a doe here and there through the year, but during season, we have counted up to 14 in our back yard at one time. The one buck we've seen, and he was a BEAUTY, large, strong, awesome rack, was hit by a car last year :( We have two bucks this year! Apparently two of the three babes from last year were bucks. We also have a fawn in this bunch. I expect we're going to see a good deal more as it gets cooler and into the fall. I love my new camera and was able to catch some beautiful pictures through the back door:

This is the view from my back door. I had thrown some old tomatoes out there on the hill where the satellite is. That's where a good deal of my small fresh scraps go cause I like to watch the squirrels.

This is Jay's friend. He had an encounter with her last week. Deer have so much personality! She is very aware when someone is watching her. I thought about naming her "Moe" for her mohawk.

Here's "Bucky Jr". Isn't he gorgeous?!

Simply breathtaking. This was my greatest birthday surprise, actually being able to catch these photos of this beautiful magnificent creature.

I have more to post, but that's all for now! If you want to see more deer photos go to my Facebook page linked in the left sidebar. You'll find an album containing pictures you won't see here on the blog. Good stuff!

Happy Birthday Braden!

Three years ago today, I became a greater aunt ("than I already am")- my great nephew Braden was born. Although we don't get to see him as much as we'd like, we still love him so much! We're getting ready to go shopping for his present and his birthday party today. Isn't he a handsome fella?

Happy Birthday little buddy!

These were taken a couple of weeks ago when he was out with his grandma (my sister- trust me, I took great joy when she became "a grandma" ;) and she brought him by for a suprise visit (hence no makeup on me!)

End of an era

A new chapter is beginning at our house. God is so good. I spoke about it a couple of weeks ago in a Gratituesday post. Four - five months ago, Jays boss of five years was "thrown under the bus" so to speak and let go from the company as regional manager. This is the same person who got Jay's position approved, regional warehouse manager. Jay loved his job. He enjoyed it immensely. Stressful at times, and a big commitment, but he was good at it and he knew it. Less than two months of that boss being gone, they demoted Jay, doing away with his position. He was again a local warehouse manager. Cold unhappy winds through this house did blow. God is good though, they did not mess with his salary, though we lost a large chunk of change from his traveling expenses / benefits. That chunk of change is what we were budgeting the kids being back in private school again, on.

I've been sitting here for a few months now wondering how we are going to manage keeping the kids back in private school this coming year. Book fees have been due, wondering how we'll have first months tuition ready, all sorts of things. We were sitting here one night eating dinner and Jay's phone rang. It was his old boss. After dinner he went outside to call him back, and come back with a huge smile on his face and said "that was the call I've been waiting for...". I didn't realize they had still been talking regularly. Apparently he, his former boss ("C") left Jay's company and got a "promotion" with another company doing the exact line of work, except its local to NC, SC and VA whereas the other one is known nationwide. There was an opening, and C was calling to offer Jay the job. A promotion(!!) from where he was at. A BIG promotion! A BIG raise! No really, like a 27% pay increase, with the potential of it being 40%! They pay 50% of whatever your private insurance monthly premiums are (WOW! we get to choose our own plan!); and he gets a company vehicle AND gas card! That would add another 3% to his income, PRAISE BE TO GOD!! I cried. Yes, I did. Tears of joy, for sure. (My first thought is we can now "afford" to have more kids, LOL!)

So today marks the end of an era. He is very excited about this new job (and getting to work under C again), and I could not be prouder of him. No longer will we be in the red in our budget, as long as we continue to seek God's wisdom and not waste what He has given to us. We have the security we've never had about where the kid's tuition money would come from. That has been why for 3 years we've went without health insurance, it was that or private school and we took our chances. God is giving us so much I am soooooo excited to share with others. I already have a laundry list of things I want to do with any windfalls we have after our (small in the grand scheme of things) debt is paid off.

He called and said he was on his way home right before I started writing this. He's officially gone from the company he's been at for five years, moving on to greater things this coming Monday. To God be the glory.

It deserves it's own post

My cousin called this morning and told me she was coming home today! Praise the Lord! I even mentioned it on my birthday wish-list that her coming home was one of my wishes, but that was between God and I. Thank you Lord for this most perfect birthday wish! :O)

Continue praying for her. She has along recovery ahead of her and she needs a lot of grace to get through it.

Happy Birthday to me!

Today is the fourth anniversary of my 30th birthday. It's been a wonderful day so far. Yesterday was equally good, if not better. Yesterday morning I posted on my personal Facebook status:

"It's so nice and quiet here. Hannah's quietly on her computer and I'm doing my bible reading on mine. No TVs, only the sound of the bible audio (not playing *right* now, but ..), the ceiling fan, and the bug sounds from outside."

The TV was not turned on until 4pm! Hannah and I spent an hour playing on Pixie Hollow, and that was an easy hour, too. Today has almost been like that. It's a beautiful day. I got up and grabbed a shower first thing. I called our Pastor's devotional line and listened to that before calling my prayer partner. This month I'm paired with a "Titus 2" lady that I have not had an opportunity to really get to know beyond "hi, how are you doing?" and a few short conversations, so this is nice. We just started this week for August. Technically, the prayer calls are supposed to be five minutes for the Pastor (it's the Pastor's Prayer Team) but we talked 30 minutes this morning (which was very nice!) and prayed for a number of things.

I have a certain frame of mind, or mood, that I like to have set when I sit down to do my bible reading and somehow that has gotten off course today, though. The phone has rang a lot more than normal, but I welcomed one call, an answer to one of my birthday wishes! It was my cousin telling me she is coming home today! Praise the Lord! She still has a long road ahead of her as far as her recovery, so please continue to pray for her. I got a call yesterday from my BFF asking for my address. When I told her I asked if she was sending me a card and she said no she was getting me one of the magazine subscriptions I wanted :D What a great friend not to question the fact I'm overweight but enjoy reading fitness magazines, LOL!!

Another call today was Dad wanting to know if 6:30 was good for my birthday dinner, tonight. I told mom the other day we would do it tomorrow because that's payday, but they're buying all our suppers tonight Applebees, yay! What a blessing! I just love their Quesedilla Burger, it's awesome!

I am so blessed. Thank you Lord!

Tell Me Thursday: Family Fun Day

Tell Me Thursday is hosted by tellmethursday.com , be sure to hop over and see other participant's posts!

This week's Wordless Wednesday was about Family Fun Day. Every year our church holds Family Fun Day. They rent out the big bouncy things for the kids to play; create a giant fenced in play yard for the toddlers (if you click on that picture you can see a bigger, more detailed version of the pic). The teens and athletic adults play basketball, soccer, and volleyball. Some years we've had a rock climbing wall that Jackson LOVED. There's food provided and everyone brings desserts. I love the dessert tables at our church events. Everything looks so good, but in recent events I've always managed to somehow to gravitate toward something Mel made not even knowing she made it (beforehand) LOL There's patriotic music played, as well as live singing of good, God honoring songs. This year, "Uncle Sam" showed up and passed out pocket sized Constitution/ Bill of Rights booklets. :o)

Its a great time of fellowship, and we end the evening watching the fireworks show that is thrown by the town a few blocks down the road.

My Birthday "List"

I got to thinking last night as we were heading to bed and I was clarifying to Jay what I would like for my birthday (7/30) if he or anyone else was wondering. Of course, he knows what to get me. Lambertis GCs and I'm good. Don't stray from what works, right?

Other things, which, as I list them, is mostly reading material.
Subscription to Clean Eating Magazine, and Oxygen Magazine.
Books: Common Sense by Glenn Beck, and Liberty and Tyranny by Mark Levin.
GC to Cato.

Tree to come home from the hospital. But that's between me and God ;)

The improvement is amazing

I spent a good while at the hopital yesterday and my cousin is doing SO good. She walked around her unit twice in a row right before lunch, and she had already walked three times before I got there! I cried a little, she cried a little, then a counselor from cardic services come in and talked to her for a while explaining what to expect in coming weeks. He was very helpful. I'm glad that they have someone like that on staff. All he does is counsel with cardiac patients on the floor. It's sad when you think about it though because, he has a full time job doing that- that means there are that many people sick each day!

My other cousin who works in the cath lab and was there with her when she had her heartattack come in for a visit while I was there. She had a printout of her heart when they took the first couple of pictures at the beginning of her procedure. It showed the blockage and she explained it a little and WOW~ definately a HUGE difference between what it was supposed to be and what it was.

Keep praying. She might get to go home today!